South Sudan’s Kiir called on supporters to re-elect him in 2018

January 13, 2016 (JUBA) – South Sudanese President, Salva Kiir, has on Wednesday appealed to his supporters to mobilize votes for him in future elections due to be conducted in 2018.

Speaking briefly to cheering supporters as the ruling party of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) handed its basic documents to the Political Parties Council (PPC) for registration, Kiir said there is no easy struggle in everything.

“When time comes for elections, you mobilize more people to come and increase your numbers and give all the votes to my box,” said Kiir, speaking to ululating SPLM supporters at Freedom Square in Juba on Wednesday.

The president was driven on an open hardtop car as several ministers, members of parliament from SPLM and ordinary citizens accompanied him to the PPC office in Thongpiny suburb of Juba.

“You have been in the sun for long time and that is why I stopped here to say thank you very much for the support accorded to us (SPLM),” he said.

“I want to tell you that there is no easy struggle. See how you walked on feet to the SPLM office and return here. That is a struggle,” he said.

According to South Sudan’s Political Parties Act, 2012, all parties should be registered in the independent South Sudan to be recognized in any future elections. The PPC set January 15, 2016 as the deadline to register all parties in the country.

The National Congress Party (NCP) of Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir registered on Monday in Juba. There are more than twenty political parties in South Sudan; most of them have offices only in the capital Juba and have not yet registered.

SPLM had never registered in South Sudan since independence in 2011 and had only been using the registration certificate from Khartoum before the country split.

(ST)